Dr. Sadok Besrour

Dr. Sadok Besrour

Inspired by his personal experience of collaboration in developing family medicine in his native Tunisia, Dr. Besrour envisioned a Centre where the expertise of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the experience of Canadian family physicians could be leveraged—through collaboration with international partners and global stakeholders—to increase access to person-centred and community-informed quality care around the world.

Dr. Sadok Besrour was born in Djerba, Tunisia, and has lived in Montreal, Quebec, since 1969.

He completed his medical studies in Strasbourg, France, then obtained a doctorate of medicine in Lyon, France in 1968. Dr. Besrour completed a master’s in business administration at the IMD Institute of Lausanne in Switzerland in 1972.

Dr. Besrour was Medical Director of the pharmaceutical company Sabex International in Montreal from 1973 to 1977.

He completed his residency in family medicine at the Montreal General Hospital (McGill University, 1977–79) and holds a diploma from the American Board of Family Physicians (awarded in 1979). He has been a member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada since 1977.

Dr. Besrour has been affiliated with the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM) at Notre-Dame Hospital in Montreal since 1979 and is co-founder of the Clinique de médecine familiale Notre-Dame in Montreal.

Dr. Besrour founded Canada’s first Research Chair in Family Medicine at Université de Montréal, a highly regarded position in Canada and abroad.

In 2007, he established the Dr. Sadok Besrour Fund for the Development of Medicine in Tunisia, which supports cooperation projects, scholarships, and awards at the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal and at the four Tunisian university faculties of medicine. These research and teaching honours have been awarded yearly by an international jury in Tunisia since 2007 and over the years have been bestowed in the presence of dignitaries including Tunisia’s Minister of Higher Education and Minister of Public Health; the Deans of the Faculties of Medicine of Tunisia, and at Université de Montréal; and the Canadian Ambassador to Tunisia.

The Fund, the Foundation, and the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal continue to collaborate with Tunisia’s Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Public Health, and its four university faculties of medicine on a number of ongoing projects.

The Dr. Sadok Besrour Foundation, also created by Dr. Besrour, has funded several annual awards of excellence in family medicine at the CHUM Notre-Dame, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and in Tunisia.

Together with the College of Family Physicians of Canada, Dr. Besrour founded the Sadok Besrour Centre for Innovation in Global Health. The Centre’s goal is to leverage collaboration among Canadian and international family medicine experts, academics, communities, patients, and key stakeholders to advance the discipline of family medicine as a pathway to health equity around the world.

Dr. Besrour has been a member of the following organizations:

CHUM Foundation Board of Directors since 2000

Honorary Committee of the funding campaign at the Université de Montréal

“Fonds facultaire d’excellence”, advisor to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal

Life member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada

Dr. Besrour’s Honours and Awards

Nominee for the inaugural awards of the Council of Arab League Ambassadors in Canada (Philanthropy Category) in 2013

Recipient of the Medal of Honour of the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal in 2014, the highest distinction of the Faculty of Medicine